Imagine if you lived when Jesus walked the earth, and he pulled you aside and said, “I have to get supplies for the meal tonight. It’s about an hour walk each way. I’d love it if you came with me so we can talk.” That would be amazing right?
I’m guessing most of us, because we are so in awe of Jesus, would let Him lead the conversation. I’m sure he would be a good question asker and draw thoughts out of us. But I think we’d let Him do most of the talking. Why? Because He’s God. He is the supreme Teacher, and we are learners. He is the Creator, and we are creatures. So He would talk, and we would listen. He might ask a question, and we’d share our heart with Him, and He’d listen. Then He’d start talking again. And so on.
This is how conversation works. Well, not always. We’ve all talked with people who don’t seem aware that conversation is a two-way thing. They keep talking and talking and don’t pause to let us respond and add to the conversation. But most good conversations are like an exchange of thoughts back and forth. We all know this.
Missing it
Prayer is essentially a conversation with God right? But is it a two-way conversation? I know when I am writing and talking aloud to God it is my tongue, my pen that fills the time. Sometimes I not only do all the talking, but I’m doing it quite loudly! Should I shut up and do more listening? Should I stop rambling on and on and give the Lord a chance to speak?
Maybe you’ve had these questions as well and have tried to adjust by sitting in silence and waiting to hear His voice. And what happens? Cmon, let’s be honest. Nothing. It’s the sound of silence. We just poured out 100 things to God, and He’s silent? Why isn’t He saying anything?
I’m not saying it’s bad to be silent sometimes or to just pause from our rambling. Silence can calm us and pull us into a more focused kind of praying. It’s possible that in our blank silence the Lord would speak something to us. But I’m just saying He doesn’t usually speak this way.
I should also add that when you make your mind silent and empty, it’s more in line with eastern religions and New Age practices. It can be dangerous actually. Remember that we are part of a spiritual realm and demons can drop ideas into us. Or we might get some random thought or picture come to mind—and think this is the voice of God! Again, the Lord could speak to us in this way but it’s not typically how He speaks, so I don’t advise forcing that.
Part of our struggle with hearing God’s voice is that we overly mystify it. We imagine once we get into a heightened state of spiritual consciousness of God that we will then hear something like a faint voice cutting in and out speaking abstractly. Or we think if God spoke it would be a dramatic encounter or some powerful spiritual vision like Ezekiel had. As a result, most Christians would say that they’ve never (or rarely) heard the voice of God. They perceive prayer as them doing all the talking and God never talking back. They may believe God heard them, and even answers their prayer, but they think He doesn’t talk with them.
Can you see how this way of thinking about prayer would discourage us? Who wants to talk with someone and never have them respond back with their thoughts? After a while, you’d get the feeling the person doesn’t like you!
God is speaking!
We know from Scripture that the Lord does speak to His children. He speaks in a variety of ways including dreams and visions and angelic encounters. He speaks through supernatural circumstances and through the words of individuals. He speaks audibly at times. But most of the time He speaks in a way that is so familiar we can overlook it.
The Lord speaks to us through our words to Him.
Read that previous sentence again if you need to. I’m saying God uses our tongue, our pen, our vocabulary to communicate to us, and it happens as we are pouring out to Him. Consider this verse:
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. —Romans 8:16
There’s communication—okay this is a little mystical—between His Spirit who dwells in us and our spirit. This is profound when you ponder it. The Spirit (capital “S”) is the Holy Spirit, God. The spirit (small “s”) could be described as the apparatus within us by which we can commune with God. So the Holy Spirit and our spirit are interacting. Our prayers are a tangling together of the Spirit’s thoughts and our thoughts! Paul talked about this in his letter to the Corinthians. This passage is a little lengthy, but try to read it slowly so you really take in what he’s saying:
But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. —1 Corinthians 2:9-12
The main thing I want you to understand is that your spirit and God the Spirit interact. That means when you are praying out loud or in your mind or writing prayers, the Spirit is participating. He is guiding you. He is impressing certain thoughts on your heart. He is bringing to remembrance Scriptures. He is driving the conversation.
It doesn’t mean that every word that proceeds from our mouth or comes off our pen is verbatim God. Not at all. God the Spirit and our spirit are mingled together as we pray. Some prayers have more of our thoughts in them, and other prayers more of the Spirit’s thoughts.
Some helps
Because the Spirit plays such a significant role in our prayers it’s important to be conscious of that. I don’t mean that you should get into some spooky mode and try to channel the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to do that. Just relax. Be humble. Have your Bible open. And just talk from the heart. Pay attention to what comes out of your mouth as you pray. It could be God speaking to you!
I’ve also noticed that the Spirit tends to use repetition to get something into me. It just keeps coming into my prayer over and over. Sometimes when we read in the Bible “the Word of the Lord came to me saying …” we imagine the prophet just getting this message out of the blue sky. That happened, but, I think many of the things they spoke as words from God were the result of hundreds of prayers—and many tears! God doesn’t want to just get information to us. He wants it to woven into our being. That’s why prophets spoke things with profound emotion. They weren’t disconnected messengers. The words burned in them. So pay attention to things that keep floating to the top in your prayers.
Another practical thing I want to say about hearing the voice of God is this: know your Bible. The more of the Word inside of you the more the Spirit has to use. I know the Spirit can do anything—He’s God—but He isn’t known to illuminate Scripture that’s not inside of us. If you don’t have the Word in you you’ll end up praying mumbo jumbo weird stuff out of your imagination. The more of the Word in you the more expanded vocabulary the Spirit has to communicate with you.
I’ll be praying that as you seek Him this week you’d begin to recognize His voice in your voice. May our hearts be wide open to whatever He wants to say to us. May we not come with our agendas or try to trump God’s will with what we want. Let’s come with willing hearts and listening ears.
Scott A